I am able to most
clearly think, absorb, mediate and explore my life and the lives around me via
my art.It helps me counter and
re-frame the compartmentalization, prescriptions and projections felt on a
daily basis.

What's a project (yours or another's) that has been
exciting you lately?

As of late I’ve found myself becoming more
involved in collaborative projects.I
just finished working on a small book, LITtle by LITtle, with an urban
geographerand photographer, Laura Y.
Liu.I wrote the text and Liu took
photographs engaging in ideas about the everydayness of an interior domestic
space. The book itself acts as a space and tribute to the minute thought,
gesture and observation, where even particles of dust are given weight and
valued. We are using LITtle by LITtle as a basis for an upcoming NYC
performance we are doing with the collaborative, interdisciplinary group Wonder
Machine.

Tell us a little of your motherhood journey.

Hmm.Well I guess I could say I was ambivalent in
having kids. I was protective of my own time. But then I did, and I had twins
(my mom’s a triplet!).It was sort of
hellish and sort of a blur in the beginning.But I liked it so much that about 4 ½ years later I had one more.
Crazy.Ava, Judah and Iris are really
great little people. They make sure I keep it real and are also supportive of
who I am and what I want (as much as they have the ability to support me!).

What are some crucial elements of your process?
How has that changed since having children?

I used to need a lot
of space to think through ideas, research, take notes, etc. I would do
month-long residencies and spend a lot of time flipping through books and
looking out my window. That’s a past life now. Time is such a strange concept
after having kids. I never really marked or noticed time quite the way I do
now. Everything is demarcated by time—15 minutes to respond to my emails; 22
minutes before food needs to be on the table, etc. I’ve been forced to live
more out of my head and to think quicker than my natural pace. I resented this
and resisted it in the beginning but then I began to see it as falling into a
new poetics: one of speed, interruption and overall disruptiveness. I presented
a paper on this called “The Synergy of Poetics and Motherhood” at the Belladonna: Advancing Feminist Poetics And
Activism Conference.

What are some of the ways your family and your art
interact?

My seven
year-old twins read some of my work, which is hilarious. One time I was
visiting my daughter Ava’s school. The class was sharing stories they’ve
written with parents. I went over to one of Ava’s classmates, Alexa, and read
her story and complimented her and she looked straight at me and said “I’ve
heard you have written some stories of your own.” It made me happy that Ava was
obviously talking about my poetry to her friends.We generally are a creative family and do a
lot of word play, dance, performance, etc., at home.My kids have gone to several readings with
me.They love the annual Poetry Project
New Year’s Marathon Readings. Though they do tend to loudly critique the
various poets’ work and I end up having to quickly remove them from the scene.
My kids also have read poems at several events that I have been involved in.

Do you find your attitude towards your art might be
different because of your parenting / has it changed since you became a parent?

I don’t know how it
couldn’t be different.For me parenting
has been an exercise in trying to sustain engagement and presence for long
periods of time. I’m not great at it but I’m certainly better at it than I was
before.I used to live a lot in my head
and now I feel I’m much more aware of what’s in front of me.My work has become increasingly observational
(but not in a passive, descriptive way) in an active, frenetic and layered
context. It’s not as tidy or one track.I’ve been working on serial projects for several years now and they all
seem to be about expanse, nuance and trying to explore several ideas
simultaneously.

photo by Lawrence Schwartzwald

Are your children ever subjects in your
art?

I
try to avoid using people as subjects or at least approaching work in that
way.I feel it puts me at a distance or
in authority position that I’m uncomfortable with.But I do think my kids, like everything I
experience, absorbs into my work in one way or another. At some point I’d like
to embark on some collaborative writing project with my kids as that would be
fun and I’d probably learn from them. I also do have a manuscript called Bear that is about a quasi-human Mama
Bear and her two cubs loosely based on not so much my kids but my experience of
motherhood.

Aside from the obvious need of more time, what has
been one of the most difficult obstacles you’ve had in regards to parenting and
your art?

Accepting that a day
is more unpredictable than I could ever imagine. A kid(s) gets sick and you
drop everything.What I think I can
preserve as “mine” keeps getting negotiated. Plus I just get so drained that
it’s hard to go to readings at night and get my body in motion.

In turn, what
are some of the saving graces?

My Po-Mom writing
group. They’re tough and insightful and can whip through editing a bunch of
each other’s poems with kids crawling all over the place.How do you escape?

Beside the good ol’
combo of TV and wine, I hate to say it but my job (university teaching) is an
escape. I like to feel that I have several flexible identities and professor is
one of them. My job is so demanding that I don’t have a ton of time to think
about what’s going on at home.

What advice do you have for expectant mothers in your
field?

Be very kind to
yourself and forgiving. You can’t imagine how much effort it takes to manage a
small life. A day can get eaten up with the most mundane, menial tasks it’s
mind blowing.Accepting how much work it
is to parent and giving value to this helps one feel compassion when moving a
turtle’s pace with other interests and ambitions.And of course, if you have a supportive
partner it is all the better.